Women's Forum at Drake
Provides Answers

By Jeffrey Klein
CyberNews Staff Reporter

February 26, 2002

"If you're ready for help, we're ready to hlep you." Sherri Adair, a longtime employee of Victim Services of Des Moines, told a group of students attending a forum Tuesday night on available community resources at Drake University.

The forum was just one of the Womyn's Week activities sponsored by the Department of Women's Studies. Janet Wierth-Cauchon, director of women's studies said, "The goal is not only to educate but also to bring women together."

Joing Adair on forum was Margaret Whorton-Folsom. Folsom is the community development and grants manager for Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa. Folsom encouraged young woman to give somthing of themselves. She said, " Some people can give money but can't volunteer. Some volunteer but can't give money. Sometimes your time is the greatest gift ou can give."

In addition to talking to students about volunteering and intership possibilities, Folsom also talked about the services provided by Planned Parenthood. These services include sex education, counseling and direct medical care.

Kelly Rice, outreach coordinator for the Family Violence Center of Des Moines, spoke about the issues faced by battered women. Rice said, "Our shelter is able to provide a safe, confidential center for women and their children. Also, becaue we (the administration) are familiar with the law, we're able to provide a lot of resources along the legal route."

Women are able to stay for free at the Family Violence Center as long as needed. Rice closed her portion of the forum by issuing a startling statistic that left students stunned. She said, "The number of women who are battered at least once in an intimate relationship is one of three with that number soon approaching two of evey three."

Judy Davis, of the Young Women's Resource Center, went on to talk about what she sees as a problem. She said, "We try to do as much as we can on prevention. We served around 180 young women last year, and out of those women, 25 percent said that they have been abused. Our goal is to make sure that the remaining 75 percent don't receive any pain."

Adair, a longtime employee of Victim Services of Des Moines, talked about her goals for successful victim rehabilitation. She talked about her own personal experience with sexual assault.

When asked about what can be done to ensure justice for victims, Adair said, "Our goal is to work on making sure the victim is not revictimized by the system."